Where Can You Get a Decent Pasty around Here?

We know Australians love their pies, we’ve talked about this before in my post Who Ate All the Pies? When you go to a baker’s here, you don’t so much see chilled cabinets jampacked with ready-made sandwiches, instead they have hot shelves stuffed with sausage rolls and pies.

Just one pie left in this baker’s…

Hard to see it, I know, but it’s in the red circle, honest.

So yes, they sell pies and sausage rolls, but no pasties.

You can’t even buy pasties from our major supermarkets; here is what happens if you search for ‘pasty’ in Woolworths…

Yes, pasta products come top, not a good sign is it?

Back in the UK, these Ginster’s pasties are in almost all of the supermarkets like Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury’s straight from the shelves…

A Ginster isn’t just any old pasty though, it’s a “Cornish Pasty”. Cornish pasties are THE pasties and there is a whole industry in Cornwall busily making pasties, it’s a big business.

Who hid all the pasties?

In Australia though, it’s a different story. I’m not saying you can’t get a pasty in Oz, but is not easy. Certain farmers markets might have a stall that sells pasties and one or two speciality shops here and there may also sell them, like Britain on the Bayside here in Brisbane.

They, in turn, get them from Chumley Warner’s fish and chip shop, or fisho as we would call it here. My wife happened to be passing by the other weekend and very kindly bought two pasties for me…

Obviously I’ll only eat one at a time though.

So, I decided to look into this matter in greater depth.

My UK vs Australia pasty comparison experiment

Yes, it was time to put on my white apron again, go into the laboratory and get on with another one of my hugely scientific tests. I fired up my trusty PC and headed over to Google and punched in the search phrases…

Australian pasty

Cornish pasty

To put that into perspective for those who don’t know, I’m comparing a landmass of around 7.6 million square kilometres (Australia) with around 3500 square kilometres (Cornwall).

I got about 411,000 search results from Google for Cornish pasty and I wasn’t really expecting anything much at all from my search for Australian pasty, but was surprised to see about 292,000 results. And right there near the top was the headline “Australian Cornish pasty region concerned about protected …”

Australian Cornish pasty region? Where is this region?

The Australian Cornish pasty region

South Australia is the answer, and the concern apparently (back in 2011) was that the European Union (EU) were making a ruling that only pasties made in Cornwall could actually be called “Cornish pasties”. Fortunately for the people in South Australia, the EU ruling only covers Europe, so they can continue producing their Cornish pasty products without fear of the phone ringing late at night.

They can also continue with their biannual festival. Here’s what that looks like.

It seems that pastys/pasties are almost impossible to find in Queensland.
We couldn’t find one the few times we have visited. But here in Victoria they are plentiful. All country town/city bakers have them as well as supermarkets.
As for British fish ‘n’ chips. Ugh!
The soggy, fat soaked, pre cooked chips and fish, cod? Which has been sitting in the baimarie for hours was my introduction to them in London in 1973, revolting.
Can’t beat the Australian f ‘n’c or a hamburger/steak sandwich, cooked while you wait. Delish!
In England in 2009 and we had fish ‘n’ chips at Rick Stein’s shop on the waterfront at Padstow, that was cooked fresh, but not any better than you can get at any Australian shop and it was so expensive. Ripped-off.

Yeah. Lots of good pasties around but NOT many TRUE cornish pasties in sight. F ‘n chips always better with good fresh oils, but have to know your local shop for the best. Not done with the good old fat like in the UK

Agree with you both on the Aussie fish and chips. We often go to Mooloolaba and when we do, we’ll get fish and chips to eat by the sea front. When you place your order they give you one of those little electronic buzzers and sometimes on busy evenings you can wait 30 minutes or so for your food.

It’s fresh though, that’s for sure, and always good, so well worth the wait.

Few years ago I found a beautiful pastor in Balwyn Melbourne. Not a pea or carrot in sight. Week later I went back and got more – full of the damned things. I went back and asked what happened to which the baker explained the previous week he had run out. I asked if he could run out again to which he replied no, Australians wouldn’t like it!

That, for some strange reason, has reminded me of an old joke. A bloke goes to a garage to get a quote for four replacement tyres on his car, and is quoted $400. He says ‘I can get them for $300 down the road.’ The garage guy says ‘well go down the road then.’

The customer says ‘I can’t, they’ve sold out.’ The garage guy says ‘well we sell them for $300 when we’ve sold out.’ So the customer says, ‘okay, I’ll come back when you’ve sold out then.’

It was an Irish joke, probably no longer politically correct. Frank Carsons.

Just moved to Strathalbyn SA found loots of good looking Cornish pasties, but no good ones. Carrot peas, god knows what, oh and mince. Every time I buy one with hope and they so far have universally been wrong. Someone mentioned Belfours, if that is a good pastor then I am sunk. Skirt, swede, potato and onion and lots of pepper and salt – why can’t I find it, can anyone help please?

I do love this site but today its become a pain Why ? well I have just found this page after Andrew posted below and I have read it and wished I hadn’t as I now need to find a pasty today…Mouthwatering and salivating I will crawl into a shop and hope they sell a decent pasty….We have the HP sauce So a day planned now ruined in looking for a pasty
Like the idea of a pasty tour of Australia . I wonder if it could be a TV show in the making. The Great Pasties of Australia…or Chasing Pasties mmmmm Working title….I already have a decent cushy job but that woudl be great.

Believe it or not – Balfours actually makes a half decent CORNISH pasty if you are lucky enough to track one down – even to the shortcrust pastry (NOT flaky). Woolies quite often have them in some stores. Dear old Dad at 95 hadn’t had a good old Cornish pasty for over 12 months since he went into the nursing home, so I procured a couple of the Balfours ones earlier in the month from Woolies and he was rapt. A bit of the old “dead orse” and he was in his element again. Cheers & happy pasty hunting.

I’m not sure I’ve had one of those Allan, I’ve also checked with Mrs Bob, she is head of grocery procurement in our household, she thinks not as well. I just found them on the Woolies website, right now it is saying ‘Unavailable”.

I will monitor the situation and try to give one a go as soon as I can. Thanks for the tip, Bob

Come down to Cygnet Tassie. I make a genuine Proper Cornish Pasty, Cornish bred and born, made them from the age of 14, lived in Looe Cornwall. Available throughout the Huon Valley at the local markets. Get there early!

Looe, fantastic part of the country, well it was when I went, but that was about 1977. Hopefully you are finding Tassie just as quaint. Hope you are loving your new life over here Andrew, and good on ya for serving up those pasties.

Ex South Australian here. Like many others, I too am on a constant search for a decent pasty wherever I find myself in Australia. In Perth at the moment and sadly I have not much to report although the Golden Bakery both in the CBD and at Osborne Park does a reasonable pasty. I suspect though that my standards are slipping with my last proper pasty having been eaten maybe 30 years ago! (with one exception – see below)
I did return to Adelaide for a few days in 2014 and was determined to eat a good pasty. Consequently I headed to the Clarendon Bakery which was our family champion provider back in the 60’s. Got to the door to find that they were CLOSED on Monday and I was leaving the next day.
So I headed for my second target – the Orange Spot at Glenelg which had also been a family haunt for many years. They had run out of cornish pasties so I had a regular meat and vegetable pasty and the memories came flooding back. Encased in a perfectly cooked puff pastry and with a well balanced filling, accompanied by an injection of house tomato sauce from the squirt bottle, it was heavenly. So, South Aussies, please don’t complain about your local champions – believe me you have the best choices in Australia.
I note that Balfours are now exporting frozen pies and pasties through Woolworths to the whole of Australia. Sorry, but they aren’t the same as from the original 1950’s bakery on Cross Road. And even then they were only a middle of the road product in competition with the local specialist bakeries.

I can’t even begin to imagine how crushing it would have been for you when that bakery was closed on Monday. You must have spiralled into despair when your second option had run out of Cornish pasties.

It’s a heartbreaking story.

But a story with a happy ending, you then landed yourself at regular meat and vegetable pasty and all was good.

I love a story with a happy ending 🙂

Hope for us all, wherever we are in Australia, of having out pasty needs met. Cheers, Bob

Hi Bob and all,
We were in the same boat looking for a decent pasty in Australia. I have the fondest memories as a kid of my mum making the Cornish pasty (Recipe past down generations from our ancestors) for Saturday lunches. So some 40 years later we saw the gap in the market place in Victoria (none of the National bakehouses seem to really manage it) so we started our little Cornish pasty Company (Aussie Oggie Pasty Co,) here in Ballarat March 2016. We have had some esteemed Cornish association members give us the big thumbs up too and recently won a handful of awards at the Australian Bakers assoc pie/pastie comp. It seems we may have rattled a few cages with a National bakehouse oggie maker but we are very proud of our golden beauties. We also really admire Cousin Jacks in Sydney. If you are in the area please drop by and try one; they are the proper job!

Have been told your Cousin Jacks are the real deal, but as you are in Sydney & I am in Adelaide, just a bit hard to pop out for one. Have made a promise next time we are in Sydney to give your pasties a go.. Also the Wallaroo/Kadina/Copper triangle area make the real deal but a 3 hr drive each way for lunch is just a bit beyond reality. Mum’s were always the best though!!!!

Hey Bob, The best, most authentic, hand crafted, ‘proper’ Cornish Pasties you can get in Australia are on sale weekly at Noosa Farmers Market on the Sunshine Coast QLD!!! No peas or carrots in sight, beautiful hand made shortcrust pastry and proper chunks of beef skirt (definitely not minced!!), lovingly made by a real Cornish man (and woman!) 😉 https://www.facebook.com/MorishCornish/

The ~$4 Cornish pasties in Adelaide generally use beef mince. The Vilis & Balfours ones would be machine crimped too but the others are usually done by hand. They do have the peas and other veggies. Obviously you can pay more too. And you can definitely get the ‘proper’ beef skirt ones too with a bit more looking.

For something different you could try a pie floater at the pie cart in Adelaide after a night out, or a Ned Kelly pie the next morning for the hangover – with a Farmers Union Iced Coffee of course!

Will have to check out the place at Bondi next time I am there. Came across this page looking for pies, pasties & sausage rolls for my son’s first birthday! Not finding much 🙁

Re the search you did – you may have better hits with pasties not pasty – which has other connotations because eastern states people pronounce it the ‘wrong’ way.

Happy eating! Oh, and what are people’s thoughts on Aussie tomato sauc?

Ned Kelly pies? I’m not sure what to make of that, surely they are not made out of Ned Kelly meat? 🙂

I am a brown sauce man myself, Aussies don’t do that at all, do they? If you ask, you’ll just get barbecue sauce.I buy English HP sauce. My daughter likes tomato sauce, but we get Heinz. Whenever we get tomato sauce sachets when out though, chip shops, fast food places, it pretty much taste the same.

I lived in Adelaide until I was 8 years old and have very nostalgic memories of delicious Cornish pasties which I can never find to match up anywhere else (and yes Kitchener buns too, as well as frog cakes, and fritz!). I have lived in Brisbane since 1982 and drive my husband crazy talking about the pasties of my youth. If anyone could direct me to a decent pasty in Brisbane I would be very grateful.

Well you can try that place I mention above in my article over at Bayside, I am not a pasty connoisseur, but they didn’t taste too bad to me. Worth a go and if you do try, do let us know what you think.

I doubt very much that the Cornish Pasties offered for $4 in SA are the real deal, as many are aware real Cornish pasties contain beef skirt which is approx $12/kg wholesale for us to buy in bulk, this coupled with labour would send the product well over $5ea unless they are machine crimped or they use beef mince both of which are totally unacceptable to be marketed as Cornish Pasties.
The Cornish Pasty Man has ceased trading about a month ago, he serviced the Brisbane area.

Hi Bob,
Like Adelaide Girl mentioned, they are mostly a South Australian item. This is due to Cornish people settling the Copper Triangle mining region in SA (Moonta, Kadina, Wallaroo). They are very common in SA bakeries and pretty good too (around $4 each) . In saying that I’ve never been to Cornwall though!.
I moved to Brisbane a few years ago and they are pretty much non existent up here just like Kitchener Buns (check them out when your in SA) but I’ll be sure to check out some of the places mentioned above.

Yes, the video above was taken at that Moonta Festival, not that I’ve been. You can get pasties here in Brisbane, as I mentioned in the article, there’s that shop over at Bayside, and somebody told me there is The Cornish Pasty Man somewhere in Brisbane city centre.

Hi Gary/Bob.
Please have a look at our facebook/website we like to look after the locals ….☺http://www.facebook.com/kernowplumbing
Iam mates with a local Perth butcher who may be interested in stocking a “Proper Pasty”

I’ll second that Neville…I grew up in the ‘Hill and though they may not be Cornish ‘certified’, they’re still my family’s favourite. Like many expat Broken Hillites, I also drag a spare Esky along for the McLeod’s pasties whenever we get the chance to visit. Although they’re now Mac’s Oven Foods, the pasties are still pretty much the same (and are still ‘McLeod’s’ pasties to most people).

I even grew Trombone (squash) in the backyard this year to try to recreate the recipe with some of the original ingredients from when a couple of high school mates and I worked at McLeod’s on Saturday mornings in the early ’70’s. We’d start at 5, wash and trim the vegies, roll the dough, assemble the pasties, then wait for morno’s and fight for the best one’s (those that hadn’t quite sealed properly and leaked a little, thus having that little extra appeal…..

Bob
Have found details of a newish shop in Sydney called Cousin Jacks Pasty Co at Bondi Junction, that claims to sell the REAL item. Their web site certainly looks like they do, so has anybody out there tried or sampled this product. If good & probably in any case, next time I am in Sydney I will track ’em down & give them a go. Will also have to recommend them to the rellies in Sydney town.

Anybody tried a Cousin Jacks pasty? If anyone lives in the area and fancies giving one a go, maybe you could let us know what they are like. Perhaps if your rellies try them out, they can let us know Allan?

Hi. Living in Adelaide all my life & having had “genuine” Cornish pasties for many years, made by Mum & later my cousin through her church fund raising pasty-bake, I have recently been trying to buy one, as those previous supplies have now dried up. While many bakeries offer a “Cornish Pasty” none of them are true to form and have flaky pastry, corn, peas, hard carrots & very little so called meat. The only place you can really get a good one is in the Cornish Triangle. Just a bit far from the city for a snack!!

It must be an eastern states issue, not being able to find good pasties, Cornish or ordinary. Here in SA, most bakeries will have them, and I know that Woolies stocks fresh pasties from two local commercial bakeries – Balfours and Vili’s, so likely Coles and Foodland would too.

Maybe it’s a cultural heritage thing? Like how SA is the only state to have Bung Fritz?

Re pasties
I have yet to find a bakery here in Victoria that doesn’t sell hot pasties (late in the day could be a problem!). They vary in taste. I haven’t had any that are distasteful, but certainly have had some that aren’t as flavoursome as I would have expected. Having said that, the best I have tasted are from Huey’s Bakehouse at Scoresby Village shops in the eastern suburbs (they regularly rank high in the entries in the annual Victorian pastie competition). I hasten to add I have no connection to the business other than as satisfied customer.

Re fish and chips
Finding good fish and chips is hard in Melbourne but they must exist. Most shops produce pretty ordinary fish and chips. Some have fish cut so thin that I swear they would be transparent if held up to light. It must come down to the oil used and freshness of the oil. I don’t bother with the two fish and chip shops local to where I live.

Yes, as others have said as well, pasties are more popular down south, especially in South Australia and Victoria. As much as I like pasties, I’m not tempted to move down that way though, I’m going to stick with Queensland 🙂

We used to have a good fish and chip shop down the road, but it got sunk during the 2011 floods, never reopened after that. Shame, it was one of the few places around here where you could get decent fish and chips.

Fresh fish from the supermarket though is, dare I say it, cheap as chips, and pretty tasty too. So I now use my wife’s fish and chip shop in the kitchen 🙂

Bob, pasties, Cornish or otherwise are more popular in SA & Victoria. They can sometimes be found here in Newcastle NSW, but they’re pretty ordinary imitations to be fair. The sausage roll or ‘rat coffin’ as it is fondly referred to here, is more common. God only knows what goes into those things! 🙂

Rat coffin, that’s very good 🙂 Yes, we have rows and rows of sausage rolls in most bakers here, interesting to hear that pasties are a little more popular down your way. Who knows what goes into any of these things, I find it’s best not to think about it too much.

I saw a video about how they make hotdogs not too long ago, haven’t had one since.

Reminds me of when I was in America once and got a leaflet through the door (we were staying in a villa) for “authentic British take-away” – you could order fish and chips, pie, and even a full Sunday roast! Prices were extortionate though.

£3? That’s a bit of a rip-off. The local market (admittedly quite a big one) has a bakers which I regularly go to and get a pretty large cornish pasty from there for £1. Or the Pound Bakery and get two (admittedly not large, and not cornish) pasties for £1.

Hmm… maybe a business idea. Imagine a pasty, chips and mushy peas or gravy. Or a pasty, chilli and chips (chips with chilli on top, and sometimes some melted cheese too is great).

However a British fish and chip shop has recently opened in the suburb of Wollongong that I live in, and they do sell pasties. I have t had one yet, but if this fish and chips are anything to go by it will be beautiful. They do the best fish and chips in Australia in my humble British experience.

Then I suspect you will be returning to that fish and chip shop soon Nick and sampling one of their fresh pasties. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it if you get the chance.

Incidentally, you say British fish and chip shop, but here in Queensland I have yet to find a fish and chip shop which has everything already cooked and waiting to be sold. Every fish and chip shop I’ve been into you place your order and then you wait for them to cook it from fresh, even the chips.

In the UK you could walk into a fish and chip shop and the chips would already be cooked and the fish would be in the hot cabinet waiting to go.

I’m wondering if it’s some kind of regulation here in Australia, but what happens in the chip shop in Wollongong?

I'm BobinOz and I moved to Australia in November 2007 after living in England for a very long time. Why did I move and what's it like here? All this and more answered right here at Bobinoz. Click here to read more on my about me page.